Tensor processing units

In January’s special Top Tech 2017 issue, I wrote about various efforts to produce custom hardware tailored for performing deep-learning calculations. Prime among those is Google’s Tensor Processing Unit, or TPU, which Google has deployed in its data centers since early in 2015. In that article, I speculated that the TPU was likely designed for performing what are called “inference” calculations. That is, it’s designed to quickly and efficiently calculate whatever it is that the neural-network it’s running was created to do. But that neural network would also have to be “trained,” meaning that its many parameters would be tuned to carry out the desired task. Training a neural network normally takes a different set of computational skills: In particular, training often requires the use of higher-precision arithmetic than does inference. Yesterday, Google released a fairly detailed description of the TPU and its performance relative … [Read more...] about Google Details Tensor Chip Powers

By Lynnette Reese, Editor-in-Chief, Embedded Systems Engineering and Embedded Intel Solutions Accelerators offload repetitive calculations within cloud services, but what if new AI computing models do not conform to the orderly mold of array-based, data-parallel algorithms that GPUs are so good at processing? Intel thinks FPGAs are the answer. So does Microsoft.Artificial Intelligence (AI) will transform how we engage with the world and is already the fastest growing workload for data centers. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) can accelerate AI-related workloads. It makes perfect sense that Intel purchased Altera, a leading company specializing in FPGAs, in December 2015 (for $16.7 billion). Intel has integrated Altera’s IP to improve performance and power efficiency and to enable reprogramming for custom chips that account for a more significant share of server chip shipments. Intel’s Data Center Group is the most profitable … [Read more...] about Artificial Intelligence: Where FPGAs Surpass GPUs Tech Videos Industry Trends Featured Products Site Sponsors Featured Tech Videos

Want to know the name of that flower or bird you encounter during your stroll through a park? Soon, Google Assistant will be able to tell you, using the camera and artificial intelligence.Google jump-started its 2017 I/O conference around AI and machine learning, and one computer vision technology it highlighted is Google Lens, which lets the camera do more than just capture an image — it gives greater context around what it is that you’re seeing.Coming to Google Assistant and Google Photos, the Google Lens technology can “understand what you’re looking at and help you take action,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during the keynote. For example, if you point the camera at a concert venue marquee, Google Assistant can tell you more about the performer, as well as play music, help you buy tickets to the show, and add it to your calendar, all within a single app.When the camera’s pointed at an unfamiliar object, Google Assistant, through image … [Read more...] about Google Lens adds unprecedented intelligence to your smartphone camera

Machine learning is a crucial chunk of the strategy employed by Google. It powers many of the Google’s highest applications. In fact, it’s very important that Google has been working for years behind the closed doors for developing a customized solution of its own to power company’s experiences. So in an effort to fetch faster machine learning technology, Google built Tensor Chip.Machine learning, at present, can be banking on a traditional form of hardware. The Google custom chip could be useful for more than 100 features and products that are used by the company to improve capabilities and comprehend complex commands.Machine learning offers the underlying appeal to many of the favorite applications developed by Google Inc. In fact, over 100 teams are using the technology of machine learning at Google at present. This is used in various applications namely Voice Search, Inbox Smart Reply, and Street View.Google believes that for building a great hardware, creation of … [Read more...] about Google Built Tensor Chip for Faster Machine Learning

The Google Cloud, Google’s eponymous artificial intelligence platform, is quite the capable little set of services. Its algorithms can handle everything from language translation to the identification of objects and landmarks. And now, it’s getting even better. On Tuesday, Google Cloud chief Diane Greene announced the formation of a new team, the Google Cloud Machine Learning group, that will manage the Mountain View, California-based company’s cloud intelligence efforts going forward. Improved APIsThe group will be helmed by Jia Li, former head of research at Snapchat and pioneer behind the feature that lets you attach emojis to real-world objects, and Fe-Fei Li, former director of AI at Stanford. They will oversee a slew of upgrades to Google’s cloud services in the coming months, much of which will involve Google Cloud’s hardware infrastructure. New graphical processing units (GPUs), which Google said are especially good at … [Read more...] about Google unveils a slew of new and improved machine learning APIs

Google is reportedly designing chips that will power the next generation of Pixel-branded smartphones, and it has recruited a veteran hardware engineer from Apple to spearhead the effort. On Tuesday, Variety reported that Manu Gulati, who led the iPhone maker’s chip division for close to eight years, has been hired as Google’s Lead SoC (system-on-a-chip) architect.The current generation of Pixel phones — the Pixel and Pixel XL — pack chips optimized by Google but supplied by Qualcomm, which produces silicon for HTC, LG, Asus, Lenovo, and other smartphone competitors.Google has reportedly long desired to break free of the chipmaker’s monopolistic grip. In 2015, The Information reported that Google had conversations with chip manufacturers about fabricating its own chips. And in an interview with Google hardware chief Rick Osterloh, Bloomberg reported that planned that the company was planning Pixel devices powered by proprietary … [Read more...] about Google hires Apple veteran to design custom smartphone chips

Apple is looking to expand its horizons, and it seems as though those horizons could soon include more artificial intelligence. According to a report from Bloomberg, the company is working on a chip designed specifically for artificial intelligence.The chip is reportedly known internally as Apple Neural Engine, and will essentially improve how devices like the iPhone handle tasks that might otherwise need human intelligence to work properly. In other words, your iPhone could soon learn a whole lot quicker than it already does.Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly important, but the likes of Amazon and Google seem to have gotten a head start on Apple. This new chip, however, could push Apple’s products onto the cutting edge of artificial intelligence technology — and could also power other new technologies, such as augmented reality and self-driving cars.There’s no word yet on when the chip could be officially unveiled — but when it doe,s it will go up … [Read more...] about Apple is reportedly working on a dedicated AI processor for its devices

Google has unveiled a custom chip created specifically to facilitate projects related to machine learning and artificial intelligence. The company is calling the chip a Tensor Processing Unit, or TPU, in reference to the fact that it has been tailored to work with its TensorFlow machine learning API.A blog post published by hardware engineer Norm Jouppi reveals that the TPU started its life as a “stealthy project” several years ago. The technology has now been implemented in Google’s data centers for more than a year, and it appears that the chips offer distinct advantages over standard processors.Google claims that its TPUs offer “better-optimized performance per watt for machine learning.” Jouppi goes on to state that the chip is “roughly equivalent to fast-forwarding technology about seven years into the future.”TPU was built from the ground up with machine learning in mind, utilizing a design that makes … [Read more...] about Google’s new processor fast-forwards machine learning technology

Google last week announced the Tensor Processing Unit, a custom application-specific integrated circuit, at Google I/O.Built for machine learning applications, TPU has been running in Google's data centers for more than a year.Google's AlphaGo software, whichthrashed an 18-time international Go champion in a match earlier this year, ran on servers using TPUs.TPU is tailored forTensorFlow, Google's software library for machine intelligence, which it turned over to theopen source community last year.For machine learning, TPUs provide an order-of-magnitude better-optimized performance per watt, Google said. It's comparable to fast-forwarding technology about seven years -- three generations of Moore's Law.That claim is misleading, according to Kevin Krewell, a principal analyst at Tirias Research."It only works on 8-bit math," he told TechNewsWorld. "It's basically like a Z80 microprocessor in that regard. All that talk about it being three generations ahead refers to processors a year … [Read more...] about Google’s New Custom Chip May Not Live Up to the Hype

Addressing thousands of developers at the annual Google I/O conference on Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai outlined the company's new strategy to transition from mobile first to artificial intelligence and machine learning. The goal is to equip the company's line of digital assistant products and services to anticipate the needs of users, and comprehend sights and sounds in ways never before possible on a massive scale.Google's deep learning and computer vision capabilities have advanced dramatically, according to Pichai, and now impact everything from cloud computing to Gmail, search and mobile devices."We spoke last year about this important shift in computing from mobile first to AI first," Pichai recalled. "Similarly, in the AI-first world, we're rethinking all our products and applying AI and machine learning to solve human problems."Among the major new rollouts, Google Lens technology will become a part of Google Assistant and Google Photos. The technology essentially allows … [Read more...] about Google Pushes AI, Machine Learning to the Front